Awards

Ben Nguyen, a teacher in the Clark County School District, who received $200,000 in funding for his “A Platform for the Future” concept. The concept includes building a platform for localized job shadowing, training, and mentorship to better guide and inspire Nevadans toward real and sustainable possibilities in their immediate communities. Within the first year of launch, Nguyen’s goal is to have at least 1,000 users and more than 10 partnering organizations regularly contributing to the platform. On his journey in participating in THE BIG IDEA CHALLENGE, Nguyen says, “particularly as an educator, it is an enormous honor and opportunity to be recognized for this project. So much of what we do is geared toward strengthening young people and our community and this will help me do just that.”

Las Vegas-based retired teacher Eleanor Cormier and her Project 300 Early Learning Academy model, an online virtual tutoring program for kindergarteners in urban elementary schools of Clark County to strengthen their literacy skills utilizing common core state standards in English language arts. As a result of the contest, she received $50,000 toward her idea, which will help her serve 100 students by the end of 2023. Reflecting on the contest she says, “this will help bring the joy of reading and joy of literacy to so many children.”

Mindful Music Moments (MMM), driven in Nevada by Henderson resident Dorothy Blake. With $25,000 in funding from THE BIG IDEA CHALLENGE, the program will be able to launch a pilot program in the state in 2023 and deepen conversations to expand its future scope. At its core, MMM is a combination of mindful, creative prompts and world-class music, providing students, teachers and administrators a daily moment for to ‘center and ground’ through music before learning begins. On the program’s expansion in Nevada, Stacy Sims, founder and director of MMM from The Well, says “we are a small and mighty team, and we are so eager to begin creating stronger partnerships in Nevada.”